Xmen Revisited, Chapter 3:The date
by Kindar
Summary: My x-men universe. Scott and Jean finally go on their first date accompanied by Henry and Thomas.
1. Chapter 1

Scott fought with the tie again, and again he lost. He cursed under his breath and tried once more.

"Looking sharp Scott," Henry said leaning in the doorway to his friends' bedroom.

Scott looked at him in the mirror and with exasperation said, "yeah? Well, if this tie doesn't cooperate I'm going to blast it to kingdom come."

"Turn around," Henry said as he crossed the room. He took the tie and placed it around Scott's neck "It really isn't complicated, you start like this, and then you go around, behind and then under, and voila!" Henry moved away and Scott looked at himself in the mirror.

"Ties must require enhanced agility, that's got to be it," Scott whispered to himself as he adjusted it.

"You know you don't have to wear a tie, Maxine isn't that high class a place."

"I want to make a good impression on Jean."

Henry raised an eye brow. "You two have been talking on the phone every nights, how much more impressed can she be?"

Scott smiled, thinking how much more there had been to those calls than Henry could know. "Have you been eavesdropping?"

Henry gave him a hurt look, "Of course not. But only two of those calls were in a sound proof room, and these ears, hear everything," he finished grinning.

Scott shook his head and chuckled. He gave himself the once over again and realized that he looked like James Bond in this black suit. He looked at Henry who was wearing a deep blue suit, custom made for his large frame. The last three buttons of his white shirt were open, revealing his black chest hair. Even with his black hair a little disheveled he still managed to look better than Scott ever could. And he was doing it looking completely relaxed while Scott felt like he was on pins and needles.

Henry held him by the shoulders warmly. "Relax Scott, everything's going to be alright."

Scott looked in his best friend's eyes and the enormity of what he was embarking on hit him. He grabbed Henry in a tight hug. "Am I supposed to be this fucking scared Mac?"

Henry wrapped his arms around Scott, part of him wanted to give him some trite answer, but they had been through too much together, he deserved a more honest answer. "I'm pretty sure you are, and it won't be the last time. Love and relationships aren't like in Ororo's romance novels. They're dirty, messy and a lot of work."

Scott pulled away and looked him in the eye "Lots of help you are Mac," he said with sarcasm, but strangely enough he didn't feel quite as nervous.

Henry smiled at him. "Only the best for you, you know that. But don't worry, as scary as it will be at times, when it's not you're going to be flying higher than the clouds."

"Speaking from experience?" Scott asked.

Henry just smiled.

Scott disentangled himself and straightened his jacket. "Come on, lets get out of here"

They walked out the room only to stop and watch Ororo walking down the hallway.

"Holy!" Scott said.

"My, my, my," was Henry's speculative comment.

Ororo turned with flourish, giving them a chance to admire her dress. It was white, covered with sparkling stones and it was tight.

"I do believe that Ms. Munroe also has a date tonight." Henry commented.

Ororo gave them a royal smile, "did the two of you think you were the only ones capable of a love life?" and then turned and walked away as if she was a queen.

Henry looked at Scoot. "You can pick your jaw off the floor now."

"She never dressed like that when I dated her." Scott said, dumbfounded.

"Then we now know why it didn't work out between the two of you, don't we?" Henry said with a smirk and pushed Scott so he would start moving.

They walked by the living room and Scott stopped. He looked at Peter and Katherine, sitting at opposite end of the room. "Ok, you two have the house to yourselves for the evening. Please use the time to work out your differences, two weeks of uncomfortable silence his enough." And then headed to the garage; there they found the Corvette was already gone.

"I guess it's the sedan." Scott said with a bit of disappointment.

"Were you really thinking of driving to Maxine in the corvette? Somehow I don't think Jean would be impressed by that."

Scott knew Henry was right. "I'm driving," he said as he took the keys off the hook.

* * * * *

Peter listened as Scott and Henry drove away. When the silence returned he put his pen to paper again and attempted to concentrate on his drawing. His pen wouldn't move on the page all he could think of was what Scott had said. He looked across the room and his heart ached for her.

"Katya," He started, using the familiar name he used to use for her. "Katherine, when we went our separate ways at Genietech, you said you'd have something for me when we got home, what was it?" He tried to keep the pain from coming through his voice, but didn't succeed.

Katherine lifted her head from the laptop she was working on in surprise, and then a look of horror crossed her face for a moment. She shook her head and resolutely focused on the screen.

Peter stood and pulled a seat in front of her. "Katherine," He wanted so badly to take her hands in his, "Kitty, when I woke up I didn't know where I was, or what had been done to me, all I knew was that you would make the nightmares go away. You would make everything be right again. What did you have for me?"

Katherine didn't look up form the screen, "Please don't," she said in a weak voice.

Peter wanted to shout at her, after all he had endure to come back to her he had a right to know, but her response stole the last of his strength. If he didn't warrant an answer then he didn't mean anything to her, and if she didn't feel anything for him, what did he have left. He stood and walked away from her, defeated.

"I asked you to marry me." She screamed at him as he was about to leave the room. He stopped dead cold and slowly turned around. "That was what I had for you. We didn't want to rush things. You died two weeks before the wedding."

Peter walked to her, but stopped when he was standing right before her.

She looked up at him, tears on her face, but her voice steady. "I don't know how to deal with this Peter, I buried you. I mourned you. I'd just made my peace with never seeing you again when you showed up again. What am I suppose to do Peter? What do you want from me?"

Peter's heart broke, but this time it wasn't for himself, it was at the pain he could see in her eyes. Tentatively he offered her his hand. She looked at it, and then him. For a moment he thought she would refuse, but then she put the laptop aside and put her hand in his.

He slowly pulled her up and carefully wrapped his arms around her. "I want to be here for you Katya, I want to take your pain away. I want to help you remember the good times you had, and," he hesitated for a moment, "I don't know how to do it, or even if I can, but I want to help you honour his memory."

She tightened her arms around him and sobbed. "I can't deal with loosing you again. I won't survive it this time."

"I will not be leaving you. I will fight the Fates if I have to, but I'll be with you until the end of the world."

Katherine held on to him as if her life depended on it pouring her fear into him and hanging on to the hope he was offering to her. She knew that if anyone could stand up to God and have even a hope of winning it was him.

When her tears ebbed and she looked up at him, her smile was honest and at peace.


	2. Chapter 2

Scott followed the directions Henry gave him and they drove to a place just at the edge of the industrial sector. It was about two hours from sunset; the parking lot was only half full.

Scott got out of the car and looked at the warehouse, there were obvious signs that it had been renovated and the outside painted over, but it still looked like a warehouse. "So, this is Maxine's." He said, not quite impressed. "I had expected more from all you've told me."

"Don't let the exterior dictate what you think of the place. I'm confident you'll be suitably impressed." Henry said as he closed the door. He smoothed the wrinkles of his jacket and pants and headed toward the side of the building, Scott in tow.

As they came near a beautiful wooden door, looking completely out of place in the middle of the sheet metal wall, they noticed the couple standing there. Jean was wearing a red strapless gown, with a slightly darker red wrap over her shoulders. Her hair was tied in a simple pony tail with an orange ribbon.

Scott stood still for a moment at the sight. "You look amazing," he finally managed to say, crossing the last few steps separating them and kissing her.

Henry had to agree that she looked great, but he only had eyes for Thomas, in his dark green suit, with fine gold lines sewed at the cuff and collar. He smiled at his man, and received the same in return while they both fought the desire to hold and kiss each other. While Maxine's was known for its tolerance, they were still outside, in public, where anyone could see them. They could easily take care of anyone who decided the 'fags' had to be put down, but they didn't want to ruin the evening by tempting fate.

Inside, the restaurant was a different world, the walls were covered in old wood, the ceiling was only ten feet in height and the light was kept low. It had an old world feel to it. In the security of the restaurant Henry took Thomas in his arms and kissed him passionately.

The maitre d' gave them a full minute before clearing his throat. Jean blushed, it was one thing to know one of your friends was gay, and even catch a glimpse from his mind once in a while, but it was something else entirely to see him in an embrace with the love of his life and feel the very raw emotion coming from them. Their self control hid the fact that their physical desire for each other was completely mixed in with the emotional love.

Scott simply shook his head in amusement at the sight. As the two men let go of each other, a silly smile on their faces.

"I am sorry for interrupting," The maitre d' said smiling, with a faint trace of French in his words, "but you can not block the entrance for so long. I do hope I gave you enough time for it to be satisfactory."

Thomas looked at Henry and then at the maitre d' with a wide grin, "you have no idea. We have a reservation, Thomas Black."

The man looked at his list. "Ah, yes. If you could wait a moment I shall make sure your table is ready." A few seconds later he was back. "This way please." He led them through the restaurant. It was much larger than Scott expected a restaurant to be, but still didn't seem to occupy more than a fifth of the warehouse's floor space.

The tables were spaced so that even side by side the four of them could move around without even coming close to bumping into the chairs. Theirs was toward the back, with a chandelier over it providing extra light. From there they could get a good view of the whole restaurant.

They sat down, Henry and Thomas moving their chairs to be closer to each other, Scott followed their lead a moment later. They talked and looked over the menu, when the waitress arrived with water they were ready to place their order.

"Henry?" someone called in French while they waited.

Henry looked up to see a tall and somewhat lanky man whisper something to his companion and then walk toward them, while the other man followed the maitre d' to a table. It only took a moment for recognition to sink in "Jean Claude!" Henry stood to hug him "comment ca vas? It's been years, what have you been up to?"

The man returned the hug. "I have been well," he replied with a heavy French accent, "I left de Renegade one year ago and I have a business now." He handed Henry a business card: 'Northstar Expedited, bonded small package courier, Express delivery.'

Henry hugged him again, "congratulation JP. I knew you were too good for those guys." When he let go of him he turned to his companions. "You've met Scott, this is his date, Jean and the handsome man on the other side of the table is my boyfriend, Thomas."

Jean Claude nodded to Scott in greetings and took Jean's hand, kissing it, "enchanté," he said afterward. He then gave Thomas a hearty handshake.

Scott looked at the card Henry handed to him. "I'm glad to hear you're out of the Renegades." He told Jean Claude his tone slightly cautious, "how are you finding being in the work force?"

Jean Claude studied Scott for a moment while he decided how to answer, every meetings the two had participated in had always ended on a stressed note. Scott could be very passionate about what he believed in, and he could also be blunt. It was one of the multiple reasons why the Renegades were always reluctant to meet with him. Even if Jean Claude had left the Renegades because of this man, they still looked at each other with weariness.

"It was difficult. I tried to work for someone else at first, but dey refused to take advantage of my speed. Dey only wanted me to drive for them. So I followed your example and created my company. It is new, I am not making much money yet, but I am getting more clients."

"What are you doing in town?" Henry asked before Scott could quiz Jean Claude more.

The man smiled "I did a delivery this afternoon, and decided to spend the night here with a friend before going back to Montréal." He indicated the man at the other table, "I should go back to him. Have a good evening."

Jean put her hand on Scott's to distract him.

"You shouldn't be so suspicious of him Scott," Thomas commented as Henry sat back down, "he has left the Renegades."

"That's hard to believe, that man was one of my harshest opponents. Every time we met he did everything he could to make me feel like I didn't even deserve their pity." Scott couldn't decide if he should be amazed at the change in Jean Claude or suspicious.

Jean squeezed his hand. "He didn't say it, but he really is grateful for what you did."

Scott wasn't quite convinced, "if he still had contacts with the renegades, you'd know about it wouldn't you?" he asked Thomas.

Thomas nodded. "I wouldn't tell you, but I would place a call to the office so they could pick him up for breaking the terms of his amnesty."

"Henry," Jean said before Scott could ask more question about what Thomas might know, "You and Jean Claude seemed rather friendly . . ." She let the rest trail off

And Henry picked it up. "I don't share Scott's suspicious mind, I met him outside of 'business' we are both mutants, we are both gay. It didn't take long for us to get to know each other rather well. That was years ago, we didn't stay in touch, but we remained friends."

The three of them looked at Scott to see his reaction. He looked back at them, getting the unsaid message. He took a drink for his glass, "Right, no work, no Renegades, just us for the rest of the evening."

"Good man," Henry replied as their dinner arrived.


	3. Chapter 3

Jean and Scott laughed as they left the restaurant. The sky was now completely dark, the only light was provided by lamps placed every few feet on the wall, from one end of it to the other.

"That was the best stake I've ever had," Jean commented once she'd caught her breath, "we're going to have to come back here again."

Thomas smiled at her, "this date is on us, you're on your own the next time you come here."

"Should I ask what the total was?" she asked.

"No, you shouldn't," Henry answered her, "and no peeking either, it isn't polite."

Scott pulled her close to him as she looked at him. "I'm willing to be your emotional support in this interrogation, but there's usually a good reason the menus didn't have prices on them."

She kissed him passionately. "Alright, I'll drop it," she said afterward, "but I guess that means we have to wait until I get my yearly bonus before we can come back."

Henry rubbed his hands, "good, now that this is settled, we can move on to the next part of the date."

"Where are we going?" Scott asked before nuzzling Jean's neck.

"To Maxine, of course," Henry answered.

Scott stopped in the middle of what he was doing and then looked at his friend, frowning. "But we just came from there."

"That was Maxine the restaurant," Thomas said, "now we are going to Maxine, the club." And with that he indicated they should follow him. They walked to the end of the wall. They turned the corner and saw a lineup and much further ahead a well lit entrance.

"We could be here a while," Jean commented.

"That's why we came early," Thomas replied, "and don't worry, it will be worth it." Over the next thirty minutes they moved half the distance to the entrance, talking and simply enjoying each other. Thomas and Henry had the harder time of it since they had to keep their hands off each other while Jean and Scott almost never stopped touching.

"Thomas Dear!" said a woman, "how have you been?"

Thomas turned on hearing the voice. "Maxine!" He exclaimed, hugging her tightly, "I've been well, how about you?"

She kissed his cheeks, "you know me, I always make sure I'm having fun." She looked behind Thomas, "Oh my, you must be Henry," She kissed his cheeks too, and turned to Thomas, "Shame on you, he's even more handsome then you lead me to believe."

"I didn't want to risk you stealing him from me." Thomas turned and introduced the others, "these are our friends, Jean and Scott."

Scott couldn't help staring, the woman was gorgeous in her pink dress with a 'v' neck that went down deep, framing her large breasts, and then he noticed something that derailed his thoughts. "You're a man," he blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Scott!" Henry exclaimed. The crowd gasped, and there was uncomfortably silent.

Maxine eyed Scott severely and then turned sideways to pose, highlighting her curves. "Do these curve look like they belong on a man?" She asked him in a cold tone still eyeing him.

"No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean," but Scott faltered.

She gave him a wide smile, "Calm down, calm down," She said, her voice dropping a solid octave on the second one. "Every one calm down, everything's fine." Her voice was now definitely that of a man. She approached him, "what gave it away?" she asked him in a low voice

Scott was still caught between being uncomfortably singled out and surprised at her change in behavior. "Your Adam's apple," he finally managed to say.

She touched her throat and then bapped his nose with a finger "You're observant," she said, her voice a woman's again, "most people miss that."

Scott finally relaxed, but then noticed that Henry and Thomas were still staring at him. "I'm sorry," he told them, "it just slipped out with the realization that a woman who looked that great was a . . . ." He didn't finish the phrase.

"Why," she said before either could comment on the faux pas, "thank you for the compliment." She then turned to Thomas, "I'm not offended, so you two can calm down, I don't need more knights in shining armour."

With the confirmation from her Thomas relaxed, and then elbowed his boyfriend in the stomach to stop him from glaring at Scott. "She said she was fine."

"Yes, I am, but why are you waiting in line?"

"To enter the club," Thomas answered.

"Did Andrew refuse you entry?" Maxine asked, her tone severe.

Thomas took a moment to answer, clearly uncomfortable. "I didn't ask."

Maxine looked offended. "Thomas, what is the point of knowing me if you won't take advantage of it?"

Thomas opened his mouth, but nothing came out, he scratched the back of his head and tried again, "I'd never take advantage of you."

She smiled at him and bapped his nose with a finger, "funny man. You four, follow me." She ordered.

"We better do what she says," Thomas said softly.

When they were in front of the muscular doorman Maxine pulled Thomas in front of her and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Andrew," she said, batting her long eyelashes seductively, "This is Thomas, and his friends, if I ask you nicely, will you let them cut in front of all these nice people?"

Andrew looked the lineup over and then at the five before him, his brow was creased in thought for a moment and then he smiled, "for you Maxine, anything."

She kissed his cheek, "you're such a dear," she told him and then led them inside the vestibule.

"How long have you known Thomas?" Jean asked her.

"Oh, since he was this tall," She replied, indicating the height of her knees.

"I was much taller than that," Thomas commented as he took off Henry's jacket and handed it to the girl behind the counter along with his own.

"You never told me how you two met," Henry told Thomas.

"It's up to you honey," Maxine told him when he looked at her.

Thomas seemed to think about it for a moment, "He was my first," he then admitted, slightly uncomfortable.

"Only I was Maximilian back then."

Thomas opened his mouth to say more but Henry silenced him with a finger. "You don't have to add anything."

Thomas nodded relieved.

Scott handed his jacket and Jean's wrap and went through the other door, behind Thomas.

With the others out of the room Henry hugged Maxine tightly "Thanks you."

After a moment of surprise she returned the hug. "You're welcome, care to tell me what for?"

"Your first lover leaves a deep impression on you. You obviously treated him very well."

She looked at the closed door "He's quite a treasure."

"Yes he is," Henry agreed.

She sighed a little. "If only I was a little younger, and he went for more curves."

"You'd still lose him," Henry said.

She looked at him with a smile. "I would, wouldn't I? At least I know he's happy with you."

Henry kissed her on the cheek. "I'm the luckiest man on earth." He told her before joining his friends.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as they crossed the second door they were drowned in sound. Scott tried to say something, but no one could hear him.

^here, let me,^ Jean offered has she connected the four of them telepathically.

Scott kisses her, ^thank you, what should we do first?^

^We get a table,^ Thomas answered, ^It's really a shame you aren't field trained Jean,^ he said once they were seated, ^this would really be useful during certain operations.^

^what does everyone want?^ Henry asked as he left the table for the bar.

^A beer,^ Scott said, ^what ever they have on tap.^

^Wine, if they have some,^ was Jean's order.

^ Red or white?^ Henry asked

^White. If they don't have any a gin and tonic will be fine.^

^And you'll have a scotch?" he asked Thomas.

^yes,^ he answered, ^neat please.^

^To comment on what you said Thomas,^ Jean said, ^I'm perfectly happy working in the lab. My ability and training is much more appropriate to treating patient than doing what ever you do in the field. And I wouldn't want to put Scott through the stress of wondering if I'll come home or not."

Scott pulled her close to him, ^that's so sweet of you.^

She kissed him, ^Henry, how do you deal with Thomas putting himself in danger?^

^Mostly by knowing that he's well trained, smart and that if anyone dares hurt one hair on his precious head they will be answering to me.^ Henry replied carefully making his way through the crowd.

Thomas smiled with pride while Scott chuckled. Some time after that Henry returned with the drinks, placing a tall glass with a russet brown drink in front of Scott.

^What's that?^ he asked. He could tell it wasn't his beer.

^Long Island Iced Tea.^ Henry replied, handing Jean her wine and Thomas his Scotch. He then sat down and took a sip of his Rum and coke.

^That's not what I asked for.^

^I know, but you're dating now. You have to start living dangerously.^

Scott rolled his eyes and shook his head in slight exasperation but he didn't say anything, this was just Henry 'looking out' for him.

Henry and Thomas didn't take long to finish their drinks and raced to the dance floor. Scott watched for a moment and then looked around.

^The place is enormous,^ he commented in awe.

Jean smiled, ^yes, it takes the entire warehouse,^ she replied, keeping the conversation limited to the two of them, ^except for where the restaurant is, but there's a balcony above it. Actually, there's multiple levels all over the place, some are enclosed and sound proofed for those who need to relax, a few have different music, but most as open balconies so more people can dance.^

^And you know that how?^ Scott asked playfully.

She gave him a sheepish smile, ^I've been eavesdropping?^

Scott smiled back, ^ thought you weren't suppose to do that?^

Instead of answering she pulled him from the table. ^Come on, lets go dance and give the two lovers some competition.^

Scott let himself be dragged along. ^wait a minute, I don't know how to dance.^ Only, as he said that he realized that he did know how. He looked at Jean

^Now *that* I'm not suppose to do,^ she said as they reached Henry and Thomas. She let go of him and started dancing to the music.

It took Scott a few minutes to relax enough and let the music take over his body. Once that happened he joined Jean and they indeed give Henry and his boyfriend a good competition.

Time lost meaning as they lost themselves in the music, one of them might stop just long enough to get a drink and catch his or her breath and then it was back on the dance floor. While they danced they didn't have a care in the world. Thomas and Henry danced close, touching and kissing each other, knowing that such open displays were safe here. Maxine's was not a gay club, but she had made sure tolerance was foremost, because of that it attracted a lot of men and women looking for an evening of cruising without worries. She even had lounges for those looking for to meet members of the same sex.

Jean was moving to the music when the wave hit her, making her step falter and knock in the person next to her. Scott opened his eyes and caught her. Before he could say anything she motioned for him to be silent. What had hit her hadn't been physical; it had been a wave of pure hate. She focused, trying to find it. It was above her, It wasn't as intense, but it was still there, somewhere across the warehouse. She turned just in time to see it.

^Thomas!^ She screamed, sending the direction he had to look in. Scott and Henry also turned since she had included them in the broadcast. And they saw a man being punched with enough strength to send him over the rail.

^Mac!^ Scott said. He didn't have to add anything. Henry was running, forcing the dancers out of his way. ^Tom?^ he added looking in his direction.

^There's too much light for my shadows,^ Thomas answered, ^Jean make sure the attacker doesn't leave.^

Jean nodded and found the mind with all the hate and clamped down on it. At the same time she watched Henry jump and bounced from one column to another gaining height until he was above the first level. He threw himself at the falling man and caught him, then catching himself on the edge of the balcony before dropping to the ground.

The music stopped at the display and the dancing followed. Scott, Thomas and Jean forced their way through the crowd, as did the bouncers. They arrived to see the man lying on the floor and Henry checking the state he was in.

"What's going on here?" asked the closest bouncer.

Henry didn't pay any attention to him, too busy making sure the man didn't have anything too serious.

"That man was attacked," Jean said, "Henry caught him before he hit the ground."

"You happen to see the attack?" the man said, his tone making it clear he didn't quite believe her. He was obviously the lead bouncers, the others stayed further back, forming a circle to prevent anyone from getting to close.

"yes, I did," Jean answered.

"So did we," Scott added.

"Yeah? What did you see?"

"This man was backing up from his attacker," Thomas said, "who punched him in the face just as he got to the railing, sending him over."

"The attacker's muscular, light brown hair with a slightly darker moustache," Scott added.

"He wears white t-shirt with an anarchy symbol on it," Jean continues. "He's coming this way," The bouncer tensed, "Don't worry, he's harmless right now, I have him under control."

The bouncer looked at her frowning before turning to Henry. "How is he?"

"His jaw is broken, but I he doesn't have any obvious cranial trauma. I don't expect he suffered a concussion, he's probably unconscious due to the shock and stress."

"Are you a doctor?"

Henry smiled at the man. "I don't have a PhD, but I have read all the medical literature that's available."

The man was about to say something when a Maxine was heard "What's going on here?" She asked as she entered the circle, "Henry? Thomas, what happened?"

"The man was attacked." Thomas told her.

"He's ok over all, just a broken jaw." Henry added as he stood.

She looked at the bouncer. "Did you call an ambulance?" she asked curtly.

"I'm on it," he answered, taking out his cell phone and moving a few steps away.

"Who did this?"

"This man," Jean said, indicating the man that was walking toward them, "I have him under control."

"Can I question him?" Maxine asked, stepping closer to the man.

"I'm going to have to release him for that."

Maxine nodded and got a couple of the bouncers to stand near, ready to hold the man should he get rowdy.

The man blinked once and looked around, "what? How the hell I get here?"

"Did you cause that, young man?" Maxine asked him, pointing to the unconscious man on the floor.

The man looked and mouth turned into a snarl. "Fuck yeah. The asshole hit on me."

"He . . . hit on you?" She looked him over, "obviously he has rather poor taste in men."

"Why you little bitch," the man replied and tried to lounge at her, but the bouncers held him.

Maxine wasn't particularly impressed. "And you didn't pay attention to the fact that this club is about tolerance. Take his picture and get him out of here. Tell Andrew that I never want to see this *man*," her tone seethed with loathing as she said that word, "in my club ever again."

The man fought against the bouncers as they dragged him away.

"The ambulance is on its way," the lead bouncer said, "is it safe to move him?" he asked Henry, who nodded.

"Good," Maxine said, "Steven, please take him to my office, the couch there is large enough."

The bouncer did as instructed

"Is there anything we can help with?" Thomas asked her.

She smiled at him, "Of course dear, you can make sure you enjoy the rest of your evening." She stopped him before he could say anything else, "you stopped something from turning very bad, you've done enough, now have some fun, your drinks are on the house for the rest of the night." Thomas just smiled, knowing better than to argue with her. She took one of the bouncer's walky-talky "Angelo, dear, start the music again." And she turned to the crowd. "Please everyone, go back to having fun, the situation is under control now!"

* * * * *

It was almost four in the morning when they finally left the club. Maxine had insisted they stay after closing and talked. Once outside Thomas pinned Henry against the wall and kissed him passionately.

"I should have known you two were fags."

Thomas cursed under his breath and looked in the direction of the man in the anarchy t-shirt, and his five friends. Before he could move or say anything Scott walked in front of him.

"You two go back to what you were doing, we'll handle this."

Thomas was about to object, but Henry turned his face so he could kiss him again, and held him tightly to prevent him from leaving. He knew Thomas preferred to handle his own problems, but for once he was going to have to let someone else deal with it.

"And the two fag lovers. I've waited all night for you four to get out of there. If it wasn't for you that fag would have been mush. So now I'm going to get myself two more fags to pulp."

"Careful," Scott said, "that's my best friend and his boyfriend you're insulting."

"Oh?" the man replied, "you like it when they fuck you then?"

Scott didn't bother replying, instead he just gave the man a smile, and it wasn't friendly.

"Thomas?" Jean asked without turning, "Can I?"

Thomas broke the kiss only long enough to answer, "yes, but don't do permanent damage."

"Oh, the faghaf needs to ask permission from the fag before doing anything." The man said in a mocking tone. Some of the others were chuckling at that.

Jean looked the group over, "no, but I need to get authorization from my superior officer before I do what I have in mind."

The word 'officer' traveled through the group and cooled some of their fires.

"Who do you want?" Scott asked her, not bothering with telepathy.

"Oh, I'm having mister anarchy. When I'm done with him you want me to help you with the others?"

"If anyone is still standing, they are all yours." Scott said with a smile before kissing her.


	5. Chapter 5

Thomas looked the scene over. "I'm sorry about that, I shouldn't have gotten carried away like."

"Don't worry about it," Scott answered, wincing a little as Jean tightened the bandage on his arm. One of the man had pulled out a knife when he hadn't been looking. "You two shouldn't have to hide who you are, especially not here, or anywhere else for that matter."

"We could have handled them you know," Henry said a he went from one downed man to the other, making sure none of them had any life threatening wounds.

"I know, but you seemed to be much more interested in kissing your boyfriend; and this way they can't say this was done to them by a couple of gays." He nudged the man lying at his feet. "Isn't that right, you were beaten up by a perfectly normal straight couple." The man whimpered, Scott had done quite a number on this one after he slashed his arm. He hadn't needed to use his power; Scott stayed in shape primarily through martial art and he had shown him how good he was. He hadn't broken anything major, but the man was going to be in pain for a while.

Henry checked on the leader, he didn't have any physical wounds, but he kept twitching. "What did you do to him Jean?"

Jean finished bandaging Scott's arm and then kissed him on the cheek. "I gave him some pretty horrible nightmares. I don't want him to ever think of doing something like this again. And don't worry Thomas, it isn't permanent, with proper therapy they should go away in oh . . . a decade or two."

Thomas shook his head slowly, "you know I should be writing you up for this, right? I hope you'll accept my thanks instead," and he kissed her cheek.

Henry stood and stretched, "well, everyone here is in relatively good shape, all things considered, so the next question is, are we calling the police?"

"We should, we were the ones threatened," Jean said, "we just defended ourselves."

Scott looked at the men lying on the ground. "If we do we risk having them play the gay card and some of the cops will probably be bigots. Thomas, you're the closest to the law we have here, I'll follow your lead."

Thomas thought about it. "Normally I'd say we call them in, but if we do, we're going to be here for hours, I'm tired and all I want to do right now is go home and show my man a good time." Henry's face lit up. "So I say we let them make the first move. Let them decide if they want to make a spectacle of being beaten up like this."

With that resolved they walked back to their cars, the only two left in the lot. They examined them and were slightly surprised to find them untouched.

It was Thomas who voiced the question they had as they stood in front of the cars. "So, who's driving who home?"

"I can drive Jean home," Scott offered, "That way you two can be at your place quicker."

Henry cleared his throat, "While I'm certain you have no ulterior motive, I don't think we should be putting your chivalrous nature to the test just this early in the relationship. I propose that I drive Jean home while Thomas drives you back."

"That works for me," Jean said, sensing that Henry had an ulterior motive, and that he felt it was important. She hugged Scott as she felt his disappointment. "Don't worry, this is only the first of many, many dates. You're going to have plenty of chances to show me just how much of a gentleman you are." She then kissed him passionately.

"So much for not kissing on the first date," Thomas commented.

Henry chuckled, "you haven't heard the phone calls these two have been sharing. If we let them share a car, I doubt they would make it out of the parking lot before ending up in the back seat."

This comment was rewarded by Scott flipping him the bird while he continued to kiss Jean.

"Isn't new love wonderful?" Thomas said trying not to laugh.

* * * * *

Henry drove at a sedate speed, not going above the speed limit. He wasn't in a hurry, Thomas had the longer distance to drive, and he wanted to be able to say what he had to without alienating Jean.

"You're going to have to be careful," He finally said.

"With what?" she answered. She could feel that he wasn't so much nervous as cautious.

"With the stuff you're going to learn from Scott."

"What do you mean?"

He sniffed the air to find out if she really didn't understand what he meant, she didn't. "There are some of Scott's project that don't exactly follow the Agency's agenda. If he were to find out that you'd revealed some of them he would be pretty angry."

"What? Are you insinuating that I'd go look through Scott's mind for illegal project?" She said, offended he could even think that.

"No, I'm not, but I can tell that you two share a pretty deep bond, you're bound to see things, and . . ." He stopped, trying find a better way to explain, "Look, when Thomas and I started going out, we were always talking about what we'd done, how our week had been. I'm certain he was circumspect in what he told me, but I would tell him everything. I even mentioned a project I was helping Scott with. It turned out that the Agency had a similar plan in the works. Thomas let them know what Scott was doing so they moved their time table forward.

"Scott was pretty angry when all his work turned out to be for nothing, but he was furious when he realized it was because I had told Thomas about it. Scott reamed me a new one on that day. I almost broke up with Thomas over that. Now I am more careful about the information I share with him." Henry looked at Jean for a moment, "I don't think you will have that luxury. Even without looking for anything, you will catch glimpse of projects Scott has. Unless you can make yourself forget, you will have to actively withhold information from the Agency."

Jean was silent while she thought it over, "well, unlike Thomas I'm not kept appraised of the active operations, unless an aspect of it involves me directly, so I probably wouldn't know if what I saw was important to the Agency, but even if I did it's still private knowledge, as a psychologist I deal with patient confidiality, so I'm used to having information I can't tell anyone."

Henry nodded, "What if they ask you to spy on Scott?"

"What? They would never do that. The Commander's not that kind of man. He wouldn't use my relationship with Scott in that way."

"I know he wouldn't want to, but he has to answer to his superiors; there's only so far he can bend the rules and so long he can ignore an order."

Jean looked down at her lap. "I don't know what I'd so if I received a direct order."

"I just want you to think about it so you aren't taken by surprise if they do ask."

* * * * *

As he expected Henry was the first one home. He left the car parked on the side of the street, no one would complain about it on a weekend, and went in. He turned on a few lights, but left them low. He then closed the blinds to maximize the amount of shadows in the house. He had a feeling Thomas would want to be in control.

He went to the den to get a book while he waited for his lover. As he reached for the one he wanted a shadow detached itself from the bookcase and wrapped around his wrist. He pulled against it, amazed as always, that it actually had substance to it. A second one wrapped around his other wrist and they pulled in opposite directions. He tried to pull free, but even with his enhanced strength he was unable to do so.

They lifted him in the air and two more took hold of his ankles, pulling him spread eagle. He gulped as he felt a shadow crawl up his leg, under his pants and moaned when it reached high enough. Shadows covered his mouth, silencing him.

Still spread he was turned around until he faced a darker shadow on the wall created by the door. A foot stepped out of it, pulling the shadow with it as if it was a plastic film, then a leg and a shadow covered silhouette. Henry recognized the form before the shadows parted to reveal Thomas.

"Hello lover," Thomas said in a smooth voice, "Ready for some good times?"

Oh yes, Thomas was definitely in control today.


	6. Chapter 6

Ororo laid on top of her lover, tracing the scars over his right eye. "There must be quite a story behind this," she commented, "They almost look like the letter 'M'."

He studied her with his opened eye. "There is," He replied in his deep voice, "but I'm not going to tell you; at least not until you've earned the privilege of hearing it"

She smiled and her body shivered slightly in anticipation as the implied order. "Should I start working on it right now?"

He caressed her face with a finger, it was rough, but the touch was gentle. "No, right now I want to admire your perfect face."

Ororo felt self conscious at the mention of her face, but she knew better than to look away. He had known the effect the comment would have on her, which was why he had said it. Not that he didn't think her face was perfect, her skin was smooth, a little lighter than his, the angles were soft, but strong; even when she was embarrassed this was the face of a queen, his queen.

"Tell me why you're ashamed of your face."

Anger flared in her eyes for a moment "I'm not ashamed!" and died down almost immediately.

He smiled at her, "no, you're not. Tell me why you retreat inside yourself every time I mention how perfect it is, how perfect you are."

She couldn't help but looked away and then rested her head on his strong chest, listening to his heart beat. "I'm not perfect, I'm broken. If I wasn't I wouldn't need you dominating me like you do to enjoy sex."

He took her face in one hand and gently insisted she look at him. "There's nothing wrong with submitting to someone, after all, I submitted myself to you." Ororo snorted in a very un-lady manner, making him chuckles. "I walked away from what I was, left it all behind, for you."

"I didn't ask you to do that." There was defiance in her tone.

"Didn't you?" He asked not letting her break his gaze, "you wanted us to be together, how long do you think we would have lasted if I'd stayed with my old occupation?"

"It would have lasted as long as you would have wanted it to."

"How happy would you have been?"

She looked away. "My happiness doesn't matter."

He kissed the side of her temples, "That's not true. It matters to me. It matters more than anything I was, more than my own happiness. Until I met you, I was just a drone, following orders thinking that was all there was to life. You showed me a world I had never even imagined, but if you weren't by my side, I wouldn't be able to deal with it. I'd just run back to the Renegades and do everything I could to forget about it. You're not weak; you're strong, strong enough for me to want to be stronger just for you." He could she in her eyes that she didn't quite believe him. "So tell me why you're self conscious."

For a moment he thought she might defy him.

"You know I grew up on the street, when I was twelve I caught the attention of a pimp. I guess with my white hair and brown skin it's a wonder it took that long. He promised me a roof over my head and regular meals; I was desperate enough to believe him. I wasn't stupid enough to think it was going to be free, so when he brought a man and told me to have sex with him I did it. I worked for him until he was killed by a rival. I guess he hadn't been too bad; he beat me once in a while, but only when I deserved it.

"The one who took over wasn't as nice. He tried to get me hooked on cocaine, but I wouldn't touch that, so he beat me. After a while he even stopped using the drug as an excuse, he just beat me when ever he felt like it. I did everything I could to hide the bruise, but I could tell the other girls knew about them by the way they looked at me. So I worked harder at hiding it. I adopted a regal bearing and made sure none of the pain I felt showed."

He didn't comment or question, he knew from experience how easy it was to get use to rough, almost inhuman treatment. "When did your powers kick in?"

"I was nineteen. He'd just finished beating me up because I tried to protect one of the new girls from him. She was young, maybe thirteen, a runaway who'd fallen in with the wrong crowd. They sold her to my pimp. She wasn't used to the street yet. She still though she could go back home and write this off as a bad idea.

"He was going to rape her. I had been beaten into submission, but when she looked at me for help something snapped; Lightning started striking all around the house. I could tell I was the one doing it, I kept trying to get the lighting to come inside the house, but it wouldn't.

"He went to a window to check what was going on and lightning struck the ground right next to it. I don't know if he died form being electrocuted or because he bled out when the window exploded, but when I had worked up the courage to check on him he was dead.

"I don't really know what happened after that, I retreated to the corner and waited. I think I was waiting for who ever the next pimp was going to be. Instead Scott showed up and took me away from that life."

"The shining knight swooped in and saved the princess again." He couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice.

She looked at him, coming back from her trip down the dark memory. "Don't be like that. Scott's a nice guy, you two could get along if you gave it a chance."

"You think? Is that why we've been meeting in secret?"

"This isn't a secret; he knows I'm on a date."

"With me?"

She hesitated and then shook her head.

He smiled, "that's what I thought, don't worry, I don't care if the all mighty Scott doesn't know about us. All I care about is you, and making you happy."

"Me and Scott dated for a while," was her reply. He tensed, wondering why she brought that up. "It didn't work out, He was able to take charge, but he couldn't push hard enough."

He relaxed, "he couldn't give you want you needed."

She nodded, "I think he cared too much."

"No," he said shaking his head, "he didn't care enough. If he had, he would have done what ever he needed to satisfy you."

"What about you?" she asked, "will you do whatever's needed?"

He looked at her seriously, "tell me what I have to do, and I will do it."

She looked back at him, trying to read his feature, trying to determine if he truly meant what he said, even though this wasn't the first time they went through this. "Then don't be gentle with me."

He rolled so she was under his muscular body and he held her hands above her head. "You wish is my command," he said before kissing her savagely.


End file.
